Has Rauner learned a lesson?
Friday, Jun 1, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From the Rauner campaign…
The Illinois General Assembly passed the FY19 budget this week and Governor Rauner has called the plan a step in the right direction and has promised swift action. The bipartisan budget includes no new tax increases, funding for the Quincy Veterans Home, savings for local governments, and funding for early childhood, K-12 and higher education, as well as the Discovery Partners Institute.
Associated Press: Rauner Promises Swift Action on Budget
“We worked together to provide a budget to the people of Illinois that can be balanced with hard work and continued bipartisan effort to deliver on the promises it makes,” Rauner said in a statement in which he promised quick action to enact the plan for the year that begins July 1… The Senate voted 56-2 Wednesday night on the plan that increases elementary and secondary education by $350 million and fully funds the state’s pension obligations and $4 billion for state employee group health insurance.
Chicago Sun-Times: ‘Realistic’ budget heads to Gov. Rauner’s desk after bipartisan ‘love fest’
With the words “trust” and “bipartisanship” uttered repeatedly on the Illinois House floor, lawmakers on Thursday quickly approved a $38.5 billion budget that Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner says he’ll sign. … To address students fleeing Illinois, the budget also includes a new $25 million tuition grant which will provide additional tuition assistance.
Chicago Tribune: Illinois House passes state budget; Rauner says he’ll approve it
Illinois House passes state budget; Rauner says he’ll approve it. … The House agreed to the $38.5 billion proposal by a 97-18 vote, following a landslide 54-2 tally in the Senate on Wednesday night. Rauner said in a statement he plans to approve it. … Lawmakers also approved $2.2 billion in spending on an infrastructure program Rauner announced earlier in the week. They granted him $53 million to cover the first-year costs of constructing a new veterans home in Quincy to address a deadly outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease that dates to 2015 — the handling of which has been a matter of controversy for the governor. And they set aside $500 million for an innovation center in the South Loop that’s being led by the University of Illinois and has been heavily touted by Rauner.
Reuters: Illinois budget speeds through legislature, heads to governor
The Republican governor praised the bipartisan effort and compromise and said he will be taking action soon to enact the spending plan, which the Senate overwhelmingly passed on Wednesday. … The budget adds $350 million to a new K-12 school funding formula enacted last year, increases higher education spending by 2 percent, reduces cuts in state aid to local governments, and appropriates $1.3 billion to pay previously incurred expenses. It also includes a voluntary buyout of certain pension benefits expected to save the state about $423 million in fiscal 2019.
WGLT: Illinois House Sends $38 Billion Budget To Rauner
“The Fiscal Year 2019 budget is the result of bipartisan effort and compromise,” Rauner added. “We worked together to provide a budget to the people of Illinois that can be balanced, with hard work and continued bipartisan effort to deliver on the promises it makes. I’ll be taking action quickly to enact the Fiscal Year 2019 budget into law.” … The budget creates a $50 million scholarship fund to keep Illinois students from leaving the state for college. It also provides includes $400 million of K-12 funding for early childhood education, and it maintains the new funding formula passed last year.
Isn’t it amazing what can be done after a tax hike is passed and the governor isn’t demanding a bunch of his non-budget demands be satisfied before he’ll agree to a budget?
Also, he’s spending every dime of the tax increase he vetoed - plus maybe a billion dollars more, when you include the gimmicks like booking pension savings in advance and sweeping funds. It would be nice if he finally admitted that we did indeed need that tax hike, but it would also be nice if I could take the rest of June off. Neither is gonna happen.
What absolutely needs to happen, however, is Pritzker and/or the media must get him on record with a vow to never hold a budget hostage again for his non-budget demands.
- Ahoy! - Friday, Jun 1, 18 @ 10:40 am:
I agree with all of this and think Rauner has been pursuing the wrong tactics the entire time. I also agree with Rauner that reforms need to be made specifically regarding our economic competitiveness and nothing has really happened to help alleviate our economic disadvantages. Yes, we didn’t create our own destruction and we passed a budget, but we still have a lot of work to do and I just don’t see any of this getting better over the next 10 - 15 years. I hope I’m wrong.
- 360 Degree TurnAround - Friday, Jun 1, 18 @ 10:40 am:
He sure seems willing to spend money. He’s no different than those republicans that voted against the revenue in last capital bill in 2009 - and then went to all the ribbon cuttings for projects in their district. Hypocritical
- Generic Drone - Friday, Jun 1, 18 @ 10:41 am:
No. Rauner thinks himself a winner. His personal wealth has multiplied while Governor. The question we should ask is, who will the Koch brothers fund next time around.
- 47th Ward - Friday, Jun 1, 18 @ 10:43 am:
===What absolutely needs to happen, however, is Pritzker and/or the media must get him on record with a vow to never hold a budget hostage again for his non-budget demands.===
First, that should be a required pledge of anyone running for Governor.
Second, this doesn’t “need” to happen if Pritzker can perform to expectations and Rauner’s approval ratings stay in the toilet. Then it becomes a moot point.
But because I expect Rauner to be a one-termer, point number one needs to be hammered home by the media every four years until this never happens again.
- Norseman - Friday, Jun 1, 18 @ 10:44 am:
=== What absolutely needs to happen, however, is Pritzker and/or the media must get him on record with a vow to never hold a budget hostage again for his non-budget demands. ===
Yes. But would anyone actually believe him.
- VanillaMan - Friday, Jun 1, 18 @ 10:46 am:
What we learned is that a guy who never built anything of value except his off-shore banking accounts, can’t build, can’t fix, can’t lead, can’t govern or even say what he’s doing.
On the other hand, Rauner has displayed an intelligence level of a virus being threatened by a healthy democratic immune system. Rauner has either given up completely, or is thinking that he can charm his way into reelection by suddenly being agreeable to everything.
Considering how badly he has protected taxpayers and the lives of pre-natal humans, being agreeable to silly liberal political stands, wasn’t much of a stretch for him.
- Anon221 - Friday, Jun 1, 18 @ 10:52 am:
What Pritzker and Crew, as well as members of the GA, need to do is make sure that Rauner doesn’t try to spin this as his work as the Grand Bargainer/Compromiser/Whatever Mad Lib you want, like he did on the education bill. He will try appropriating the success of this bipartisan work as a result of his great leadership and tough governing. He will most likely try the “in spite of” approach to spin for his re-election campaign, but his Lies and Failures need to be kept to the fore each and every day until the election is over.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jun 1, 18 @ 10:53 am:
For starters,
Rich, great stuff, you break it down then let it breathe. Great question.
Here’s my initial answer;
The lesson was taught the second Rauner realized the last budget was going to be enacted by overriding his vetoes, and he needed that to happen because he had no other cards to play.
The lesson was learned… when the entire General Assembly decides “enough was enough” and passed a budget with overwhelming bipartisan veto-proof majorities… and that lesson is… Rauner is not the governor Illinois needs or wants… and while Bruce and Diana Rauner bought the ILGOP and the members willing to stay bought in it, the governing of Illinois isn’t what either Rauner wanted to do, so all the members cut them out.
The lesson learned by the RaunerS… is that all that is bought can’t be owned. The lesson for Bruce Rauner is that a phony in business and a phony governor are two different phonies and staying out of the way when adults realize there are far greater things than the praise of Bruce and Diana… a state can be saved.
The lesson… Rauner learned his irrelevancy has now been weighed and measured, and admitting he is signing a budget that surrenders his idea that never let a crisis go to waste and having money to create that crisis… has an expiration date.
- Pundent - Friday, Jun 1, 18 @ 10:53 am:
=It would be nice if he finally admitted that we did indeed need that tax hike=
He can’t. It runs completely counter to the narrative that he’s now built. He seemed more than ready to acknowledge the need for higher taxes but held the state (and himself) hostage for “reforms” that had inadequate support. He put himself in a position where he got no reforms and a tax increase to boot. At that point all he could do was argue that the “Madigan” tax increase was not necessary because he had absolutely nothing else to show for it other than a $15B bill backlog. It was a high stakes poker game and he got called on it.
- wordslinger - Friday, Jun 1, 18 @ 10:58 am:
I think Rauner learned that most GA Republicans aren’t afraid of him like they were his first two-and-a-half years or so.
The levee broke about a year ago, when Rauner didn’t put up a squawk about the rogue GOP House members on the tax increase and budget.
Rauner’s obvious complicity in the tax increase — failing to use any of his enormous political and official powers to beat the override — must have been the final straw for all those who had backed him unconditionally and at their peril. Loyalty is a one-way street with this dude.
Then came the Superstar/IPI fiascoes, the HB40 betrayal, the Ives’ challenge and near-miss — all clear signs of weakness.
The dude has no mojo among a large number of GOP lawmakers anymore.
- Demoralized - Friday, Jun 1, 18 @ 11:01 am:
I would hope he’s learned a lesson. Of course it’s a lesson learned 3 1/2 years too late. Rauner has never been able to grasp the concept of governing. Perhaps that will change. I won’t hold my breath.
- Pundent - Friday, Jun 1, 18 @ 11:04 am:
I also believe that Rauner had little, if any, interest in governing. For him it was always about his non-budget demands particularly as it pertained to weakening labor. Rauner was the messenger for a group of individuals who felt that labor needed to be weakened at all costs. Nothing else be it efficient government, social services, or higher ed mattered. Rauner was willing to hold institutions hostage because he simply didn’t care about them unless he could horse trade them to get what he wanted. It was never about “reforms” it was a narrow agenda aimed at taking out labor.
And I don’t believe Rauner has learned anything. He’s simply looking for a new angle.
- A Jack - Friday, Jun 1, 18 @ 11:11 am:
Rauner will never admit he made a mistake. He doesn’t want to lose his last two or three supporters.
- Just Me - Friday, Jun 1, 18 @ 11:12 am:
It’s interesting that you want Rauner to make such a promise, but not Speaker Madigan. The Speaker is the one who perfected this little trick over the years.
- Anonymous - Friday, Jun 1, 18 @ 11:18 am:
VMan, tell all of us what JB has accomplished and will accomplish.
- Anon221 - Friday, Jun 1, 18 @ 11:20 am:
Also, the Janus ruling will be what Rauner will hang his hat on and tout as his legacy if it runs in his favor (re the Hoover Institution interview). But even that is something he has tried to appropriate and in the process ticked off IPI and Liberty Justice once they dropped him and supported Ives.
- Lester Holt’s Mustache - Friday, Jun 1, 18 @ 11:23 am:
==What absolutely needs to happen, however, is Pritzker and/or the media must get him on record with a vow==
Why in the world would you say this? That’s like saying Rauner absolutely must get Pritzker on the record admitting to conspiring with Blago. Rauner is never, ever going to do this - he’s never once even admitted that this was his plan. He’s always refused to answer whenever the hostage taking was mentioned by reporters. Closest he’s ever come was during the campaign against Quinn when he made the “leverage” speech about human services at a rally for the faithful. Why do you think he’d do this now? Put this question to him, he’ll laugh nervously and filibuster about Madigan, corruption, reforms, etc. like he always does.
- Demoralized - Friday, Jun 1, 18 @ 11:23 am:
==tell all of us what JB has accomplished==
He’s not the Governor yet. Perhaps you might want to fill us on what the current Governor has accomplished.
You Raunerbots are something else.
- Lester Holt’s Mustache - Friday, Jun 1, 18 @ 11:28 am:
==VMan, tell all of us what JB has accomplished and will accomplish.==
The guy too lazy to even pick a screen name gets to make demands of Vman now? You could at least start the conversation by telling Vman what Rauner has accomplished. You know, besides making 74%. of Illinois voters dislike him.
- Snapper - Friday, Jun 1, 18 @ 11:30 am:
Not going to need the promise from Rauner in record since he’ll never have another budget. Pritzker could spend the next six months touring the State with a recently pardoned Rod Blagojevich bad mouthing Sister Jean, Michael Jordan, Megan Markle, Joe Biden, Donald Trump and Mike Ditka and still win by double digits (in my opinion).
- RNUG - Friday, Jun 1, 18 @ 11:31 am:
With the potential $1B pension buyout bond, I would argue it is more like $1.3B to $1.5B more spending than revenue.
- NeverPoliticallyCorrect - Friday, Jun 1, 18 @ 11:35 am:
While Rauner will be held responsible who will hold the Dems and Madigan responsible? They created and sustain the debt this state is drowning under. They could have worked to override the previous budget vetos with compromise but Madigan had no desire to do so. Madigan had one goal, break the governor. Well, it sure looks like they succeeded and have broken this state as well.
- RNUG - Friday, Jun 1, 18 @ 11:37 am:
And I don’t believe Rauner has learned a thing other than:
1) election year politics demands a budget
2) you can buy a politican, but they don’t always stay bought
- Grandson of Man - Friday, Jun 1, 18 @ 11:45 am:
Rauner has been absolutely terrible. What makes it worse is that he rode in here to slap around people and bust them apart, instead of working with them. That was cruel and backfired bigly. The great irony is that absent of his obstruction, legislators worked very well together. Rauner made himself obsolete.
But, as Rauner said, governing is not as important as winning the Janus case and pushing workers out of unions. That’s his real goal and how he wants to bring about change.
- A guy - Friday, Jun 1, 18 @ 11:46 am:
The very fact it happened proves he learned something.
Not nearly enough. But he either got out of the way or was pushed out of the way and didn’t fight it. Either is progress.
- DuPage - Friday, Jun 1, 18 @ 11:46 am:
I think they over-estimated the number of people that are going to take the pension buyouts.
- SSL - Friday, Jun 1, 18 @ 11:47 am:
Rich, I highly recommend taking off the month of June. You won’t regret it. Enjoy life.
- Demoralized - Friday, Jun 1, 18 @ 11:49 am:
==will hold the Dems and Madigan responsible==
A lot of us do. We just don’t happen to buy into Rauner’s constant victimhood about how nothing is ever his fault.
==They could have worked to override the previous budget vetos with compromise==
Were you asleep last year? They did just that with Republican help
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jun 1, 18 @ 11:49 am:
===was pushed out of the way===
A overwhelming veto-proof majority of 153-20 and no praise for the governor but to his staff… and Rauner not cheerleading or advocating for this budget…
… Rauner was iced out, and faced such overwhelming totals in both chambers… they had enough of him.
- PublicServant - Friday, Jun 1, 18 @ 12:29 pm:
I remember when the Governor said “…but they can’t make me spend it”. Does that mean that even if he signs the budget bill, does he have to spend what the budget appropriates? I’m a bit worried about his continued shenanigans.
- The Dude Abides - Friday, Jun 1, 18 @ 12:48 pm:
The Governor wasn’t heavily involved in the budget process. If he would have vetoed the budget he knew that he would suffer the embarrassment of being overridden. He wanted to appear to be reasonable and compromising being that there’s an election in November. If he is reelected, he will never have to be held accountable to the voters again and the real Rauner will resurface. He failed at his job and will need to be replaced.
- Grandson of Man - Friday, Jun 1, 18 @ 1:05 pm:
“Madigan had one goal, break the governor”
What also makes bullies contemptible, beside attacking people, is that they dish it out but can’t take it. Madigan has been attacked nonstop by Rauner. Rauner’s primary goal is to break Madigan. Now who’s whinin’ and cryin’?
Now how will Rauner’s anti-Madigan campaign message look after he signs a budget Madigan voted for, with the 32% tax increase included? Rauner played himself into a corner. That’s his own fault. Last year he could have accepted the Senate’s grand bargain and put Madigan in a corner.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jun 1, 18 @ 1:08 pm:
===They could have worked to override the previous budget vetos===
Ever heard of Drury, Franks, and Dunkin?
I don’t think you grasp what happened, or you are willfully ignorant as to why the overrides weren’t possible.
Good try.
- Pundent - Friday, Jun 1, 18 @ 1:11 pm:
= Last year he could have accepted the Senate’s grand bargain and put Madigan in a corner.=
Lot’s of us were saying this last year. Rauner actually had the leverage given what was happening in the Senate. He chose to blow up the grand bargain and the rest is history.
- Huh? - Friday, Jun 1, 18 @ 1:14 pm:
1.4% needs at least 1 accomplishment to run on, so it may as well be a budget that he had little input on.
- Anonymous - Friday, Jun 1, 18 @ 1:23 pm:
It’s amazing what gets accomplished in an election year.
- Duopoly - not neceesary to block - Friday, Jun 1, 18 @ 2:26 pm:
I agree with RNUG. For those of you who were around during Rauner’s first campiagn, you’re seeing a repeat of Rauner pretending to be a moderate with no fiscal or social destruction agenda. That’s obviously what he’s doing now, concealing his BS Crazy destruction agenda to lull the general electorate and make himself less frightening.
- kitty - Friday, Jun 1, 18 @ 2:29 pm:
No. Rauner won’t change. His priority has been and remains to destroy organized labor and weaken the middle class on behalf of the wealthy capitalist investor class thru proxy Janus (RTWFL), elimination of prevailing wage laws and the ability of all workers to collectively bargain over wages and benefits.
- Lucky Pierre - Friday, Jun 1, 18 @ 3:32 pm:
Governor Rauner is pretending to be a moderate?
Will someone explain that to the Jeaanie Ives voters and National Review?
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jun 1, 18 @ 3:36 pm:
===Governor Rauner is pretending to be a moderate?
Will someone explain that to the Jeaanie Ives voters and National Review?===
That’s what Rauner tries with his costumes, the dropping of Gs, and dog whistle anti-Chicago ridiculousness.
“I’m pretending. Today, a moderate, tomorrow, a conservative”
That’s why he’s at 26% approval.
Rauner has no constituency.
- Driveby - Friday, Jun 1, 18 @ 4:13 pm:
Why have no press asked Pritzker for his take on the budget?